Back in the day we had no budget for marketing. So my partner and I would hit up the local networking events every week. For the most part they were completely worthless, and soul-sucking. Everyone there was a shark and just looked at us with dollar signs in their eyes. However, there would always be one or two legitimate prospects there, and we had to make the most of our interactions with them. At first we made a lot of

A design manager recently told me that he has a hard time finding good freelancers who are willing to work in-house. This is at a very well-respected marketing communications firm in Portland, Maine – a town bursting with designers. Why is he having this problem? All jokes aside about freelance designers living in their pjs, it may be time for you to consider working in-house. Maybe you spent years in a corporate or agency setting with the goal of making

You know as a designer you’ve got to market yourself in order to find new business. But if you’re only selling your services using “marketing” techniques, you’re missing a vital piece of the puzzle: networking. Get Connected. You may think your client pool exists outside of the design realm, but as Preston points out in this post, your best clients might also be your competition! That’s right, design agencies, in-house marketing/graphics departments, fellow freelancers, and production houses all can make

One of the things about being a freelancer is you end up spending a lot of time alone. After all, you work at your computer, at home, or in cafes, and only you and your expertise are required in order to have a fully-operational business. But it doesn’t have to be that way. For a long time I bought into a lot of self-help guides and motivational speakers who said, “You only need yourself. Other people are nice – but

In a perfect world, clients would just find us and we wouldn’t have to do anything except turn in a beautifully-designed project, collect the accolades, and see our client lists grow. Unfortunately, even for top-quality professionals, achieving steady client growth is sometimes the most difficult. I was fortunate to launch my design firm coming out of a large firm,having worked on some large campaigns. But while my design credentials and background were strong, I had considerably less experience in developing

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